For Essex man, the only way is Ukip, says SIMON HEFFER (who 25 years ago coined the phrase Essex Man)

Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, Brentwood, Basildon — the roll-call of councils where Ukip recorded sweeping gains sounds like a series of minicab destinations from ITV’s reality show The Only Way Is Essex.

But they also signify a seismic shift in the political landscape in what, not long ago, was an apparently impregnable Tory heartland.

The reasons for Ukip’s success in Essex are simple. People in the south of the county — not the prettiest place in the world, but one with a relatively strong and vibrant economy — have long blamed the EU for many difficulties in their lives, viewing it as a threat to their prosperity and freedom. But there is another reason.

Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, Brentwood, Basildon - the roll-call of councils where Ukip recorded sweeping gains sounds like a series of minicab destinations from ITV's reality show The Only Way Is Essex

The public-school and Oxbridge-educated elite from West London who currently run the Tory Party may live only 30 or 40 miles away, but they are from another planet as far as the down-to-earth people of Leigh-on-Sea or Canvey Island are concerned.

I detected this very clearly two years ago, after encountering a mood of open rebellion when I spoke at a Tory dinner in South Essex.

Donors and activists told me they were preparing to join Ukip because its policies, not just on the EU and immigration, but on taxation, grammar schools, defence and social issues, were ones that had been abandoned by the Conservatives.

Crucially, I detect that very many Essex Men and Women who voted Ukip on Thursday don't plan to go back to the main parties for the general election in 11 months' time. Pictured above, Nigel Farage in Basildon, Essex

The public-school and Oxbridge-educated elite from West London who currently run the Tory Party may live only 30 or 40 miles away, but they are from another planet as far as the down-to-earth people of Leigh-on-Sea or Canvey Island are concerned

Indeed, the constituency chairman told me that it had refused to pay its annual dues to Tory Central Office because it feared the money might be used to campaign for policies it opposed, such as same-sex marriage.

People like these left the party in droves last year when that policy became law.

Share this article

Share

Essex has some hard-working and long-serving Tory MPs (among them Douglas Carswell, John Whittingdale, Bernard Jenkin and David Amess). It is not surprising that many have become thorns in the side of David Cameron because, unlike him, they understand the eurosceptic, right-of-centre views of traditional Conservative voters.

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, I coined the phrase Essex Man to describe those aspirational, hard-working people whose values were championed by Thatcherism.

Today, most natural Tories, and quite a few long-time Labour supporters in Essex, have had enough of their views being ignored. That is why Essex Man is increasingly more likely to vote Ukip.

Specifically, many thousands who live in the county’s towns, where Ukip has made big advances, commute daily to the City of London, and feel their jobs and prosperity are threatened by Brussels.

They know too well that the EU’s proposed transaction tax would remove London’s pre-eminence in global financial dealings.

Also, South Essex has long been the land of small businessmen, many of whom are former Eastenders with market trading in their blood. Most of these are old enough to recall with horror how, in the early-Nineties, Britain’s membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism pushed interest rates to 15 per cent, flattened the economy and put many of them out of business.

They felt betrayed by John Major’s weak and ineffectual Tory government and not surprisingly, in 1997, Essex elected a swathe of Labour MPs. There was no precedent for this in the county’s political history, and faith in the Tory Party has never entirely recovered.

As for immigration, it is much less of an issue in Essex than across the Thames in Kent, where those arriving at Dover and Folkestone burden health, education and social services.

However, South Essex people whose families for years worked at the now-closed Ford factory in Dagenham, or at Tilbury docks, feel all the main parties have wilfully ignored their fears about getting a job while competing with thousands of immigrants happy to work for minimum wages.

With its anti-EU flagship policy, Ukip has successfully tapped into the passionate opposition to the European superstate which is particularly strong in rural north Essex where I live. People are disenchanted with the Tories for their failure to reform the misguided Common Agricultural Policy, and they despise the anti-democratic nature of the EU.

I expect to see this reflected in tomorrow’s European election results.

Crucially, I detect that very many Essex Men and Women who voted Ukip on Thursday don’t plan to go back to the main parties for the general election in 11 months’ time.

My neighbours heard the insults and abuse poured on Ukip for the past six weeks and simply shrugged their shoulders. It confirmed their disgust with the old mainstream parties.

Neither racists nor loonies nor fruitcakes, they just want their views represented by a party that speaks for them about the issues that matter to them. And now, as the tremors of this political earthquake continue, they appear to have found one.

Today, most natural Tories, and quite a few long-time Labour supporters in Essex, have had enough of their views being ignored. That is why Essex Man is increasingly more likely to vote Ukip